Crash Bandicoot: Another Leap
by xMechaSheikx
Summary: Taking a more mature approach to the otherwise kid-friendly, humorous Crash Bandicoot series...one of the many things I do in my spare time. The story follows mostly Cortex and my OC, an alien (the last of her kind) captured when she landed on Earth as a child by the doctor himself. There will be a rating change I just know it, but for now T just in case.
1. Prelude

Prelude

"Tribunal fleet Larvitan, we demand that you cease your fire!" Captain Cystrok commanded over the video channel.

"We shall not cease our attack! Your race has been a threat and will always be a threat to us and the Galactic Union!" Captain Termos replied.

"We are under Union protection this is against Galactic Code!" Cystrok pleaded trying to keep his grasp as the flagship teetered from each proton missile.

"This is not Union space my dear Cystrok, which means you have no protection. Tribunal fleet Larvitan, signing off." Termos ended shutting off communication with the Na'vale'li fleet.

Cystrok turned to face High Protector Lonark whose expression was just as worried as his.

"High Protector….we can't defend ourselves, what should we do?" the Captain asked trying to keep calm. Lonark stood up from his seat and sighed heavily.

"We must save who we can." Lonark ordered.

"Sir, the escape bay is heavily damaged. Only one pod remains in commission." One of the technical crew relayed. Lonark shut his eyes and then opened them to face the fearful Na'vale'li.

"Then we must save one, and only one of our own." He announced grimly. The others looked at each other knowing that it was the only way to save their race from complete extinction.

"Who must we send?" Captain Cystrok asked dutifully. Lonark turned to his left and stared at his only daughter standing next to him unable to understand what was happening.

"My daughter, she has been blessed by our elders and her birth was no coincidence. If she should survive she could exact revenge by returning to the Union and telling of this treachery." Lonark explained.

Cystrok nodded and carefully approached the young child who only stared at him with her expressionless face. The Captain led her to the escape bay and was followed by Lonark. The little girl stepped into the last escape pod and sat down on the seats as her father took out of his pocket a discus of metal.

"This is Holo, he will help you survive on the planet, and teach you about our people." Lonark told her as he put it on her lap.

He stepped out of the small escape pod and pressed the button to close the latch. The child looked through the window to see the grief-stricken face of her father. She only stared with her blank eyes and held the metal disc in her hands.

"Avenge us." He spoke before launching the pod.

The escape pod burst from the severely damaged Na'vale'li flagship and slowly spiraled down to the planet below. The girl watched as the last few proton missiles hit and the flagship broke into two main pieces and multiple other parts drifted into the vacuum of space. She placed her hand on the window and looked at the last refuge of the Na'vale'li. Her entire race was gone, all except for her and wherever she would end up on the planet would be her new home and her new life.

She turned around and looked out of the front window of the escape pod and saw the planet she would be landing on. It was covered in swirls of white and large patches of blue along with dots of multicolored landmasses. She had heard the planet's name once before and the name was now stuck to her mind.

"Earth." She uttered before the window started to rim with fire and the pod began to enter the atmosphere.


	2. Released

Chapter 1: Released

It was that same dream again, the one where she had been sent to Earth as the last of her kind. Ari looked up at the nondescript ceiling and then looked to her right at the large rectangular window. It was tinted so dark that she couldn't see out of it and thus she did not know what lay on the other side of it. She rubbed her eyes and pulled herself out of bed.

Since she'd never gotten a haircut her hair ran down nearly the whole length of her body almost touching the floor. Thankfully she was given hair bands around her pre-teens just for that occasion. She picked up the multitude of the bands and began to braid her hair, making sure to get all of it. On the desk she sat at there was the metal disc that she was given as a little girl.

As she braided her hair she thought of the long time she had spent in this one room and when she would possibly get out. According to what Holo had told her the person who had taken her in had never presented themselves. Of course everything she knew was taught to her by Holo, her schooling, and knowledge of the outside world as well as her people were transferred from him to her. Over the past several years Holo was always keeping track of time for her, reminding her of her birthday and of important days for their people.

She put her braided hair over her left shoulder and let her hands fall into her lap.

"How long has it been Holo?" she asked into the empty room. The metal discus lit up with blue light that followed mechanical patterns and from the indent in the middle a small holographic Na'vale'li male dressed in a long robe and shoulder pads.

"How long since what, Miss Te'minia?" he replied.

She looked at the small holographic man and pressed a button on the disc. A virtual calendar sprung out and she flipped through the dates.

"How long have we been here?"

"Let's see…..it's been eleven and a half years." Holo answered.

"So, ever since I was five I've been locked up here." She muttered.

"You never know Miss Te'minia, maybe today will be the day we are set free." Holo chided. She hung her head in doubt knowing that with all the years she's waited that seemed like the last thing to ever happen within her small existence.

"I've almost given up hope of ever seeing this world, or its kind, or even living out a life other than in this room." She admitted sadly.

"You know Ari, there are ways we could get out, but you've never given thought to them." Holo reminded.

"I said I wouldn't go through with it. You know as well as I do that what lies outside these walls might very well kill us at first sight. There could be thousands of bloodthirsty beasts and dangerous plant life." Ari protested. Holo put his hands behind him and sighed.

"Well there isn't much I can do about it then." He replied.

Ari put her head down on the small desk and put her hands over her head.

"Holo….who do you think captured us?" she asked muffled by the desk.

"I do not know Miss Te'minia. I would have to think that it was one of the intelligent inhabitants of this planet." Holo answered.

"What are they called again?" she continued.

Holo stood stiffly and went through his database before coming back to life and answering.

"Humans or homosapiens in their Latin terms; they are the dominant intelligent race on the planet of which there are several "races" based on their origin point on the planet." Holo relayed.

"What do they look like?" Ari asked lifting her head up from the desk.

"Human appearances vary greatly due to age, race, sex, personal preferences, etc."

Ari scowled knowing that her imagination was the best resource when it came to the description of races not in Holo's database. Maybe they looked almost just like the Na'vale'li or perhaps they were radically different. The question of what a human looked like always vexed her. Both Holo and Ari were severely startled when the sound of a loud metal clank echoed through the room.

"What was that?" Ari asked quickly.

"I'm not sure, but I think it was from that door." Holo suggested pointing to the large metal door at the far corner of the room.

"Do you think that we're going to get out?"

"Perhaps Miss Te'minia, perhaps."

Another clank of metal revealed a jagged line right down the middle of the door. Without another sound the two separated pieces of metal came ajar and opened completely. Ari was both scared and delighted to see that her hopes may not be in vain.

"It's been a long time since I looked at you….and I see you've grown considerably." A clearly male voice called from the doorway.

Only his silhouette was visible due to the overpowering light behind him. He was obviously taller than Ari, several inches though, and it looked as though he was wearing a military uniform of some sort.

"Who….who are you?" she asked shakily.

"I am the man who took you in when you first landed on this planet. I sheltered you, gave you food, and for a time I watched you." The man answered.

"Why did you wait for so long to see us then?" Holo questioned.

"I was occupied with more pressing matters. I apologize for the inconvenience and for any accidents that might have happened during that time, but I must say that all that time away from you has given me a chance to start from scratch."

The man stepped forth from the doorway and the light that was obscuring his appearance was no longer an issue. Ari was startled to see a human for the first time, but was utterly fascinated. This human was dressed in long white over shirt with two sets of buttons adorning the length of it, along with a black belt. He had burnt red colored gloves along with long, dark trousers that ended with equally dark boots.

The one thing she found disturbing about this human was the odd color that his skin took on his slightly larger head. Her eyes were drawn to the large "N" that seemed to be stuck to his forehead and from there she saw his unkempt, frazzled tufts of obsidian black hair as well as his neatly trimmed facial hair.

"You don't need to be afraid of me. I've no reason to harm you….yet." he assured.

"You're a human….that's a relief, I always imagined your kind to be some kind of monstrous ape people." Ari breathed. The man lifted an eyebrow quizzically, but let her indirect insult slide by.

"Yes, I know that being kept in this room has kept you from learning of this world and its inhabitants, but I assure that we are not 'monstrous ape people'." He continued. There was an awkward silence between the two until the man cleared his throat.

"So, if you would be so kind as to tell me what you're called I would be happy to return the favor." He demanded passively.

"My name is Ari Te'minia, and I'm a Na'vale'li." She replied bowing her head slightly.

"I am Doctor Neo Cortex, for the time being you may call me by some shorter name, but just for the time being." He introduced slightly harshly.

"Well, then sir, since this is the first time we've ever met and I do have much to thank you for, like taking me in when I landed here…." She tried to finish.

"You don't need to thank me at all. The outside world is no place for a child, especially alien ones." He intervened. Cortex turned and climbed back up the stairs.

"Come with me, I think it's time that you got out of that room." He ordered. Ari glanced at Holo and delight was clearly on her face.

"We're going to get out Holo, we're going to see what lies beyond these walls." She cheered running for the steps and Holo stayed at his station. Noticing that Holo wasn't following her she turned back to see him waiting patiently.

"Oh, just a second, sir." Ari spoke hustling over to the discus and pressing different buttons. The hologram Na'vale'li grew considerably in size and was now in full detail, he looked at though he were real, but he truly wasn't.

Ari returned to climbing up the stairs and at the top she saw what exactly that window looked up into. A room full of machinery, all complex and intertwined for some foreign purpose.

"This looks like one of the engineering chambers of my people's ships. She commented. Ari moved over to one of the many devices and almost touched it.

"Don't touch anything, please!" Cortex warned, causing her to shrink back from the buttons of the device. After that she followed rather close unsure of what was permitted and what was not. Doctor Cortex stopped abruptly at the main centerpiece of the room, a large and overly-complex ray gun of some sort. Ari watched as the man typed away on a keyboard making the machine shudder and move.

"What does this thing do?" she asked.

Cortex stopped typing and looked up at the machine, satisfied, he backed away from it and then addressed her question.

"This is my Evolvo-Ray. A marvelous contraption that makes common animals into super enhanced humanoids." he stated. Ari examined the machinery and wondered at just what creatures this device could create...or had created. It took her a while to notice that Cortex was heading off to another room and she quickly caught up with him.

After going through a set of metal doors that opened as the one to her room had on the other side was another room full of computers. The screens took up entire sections of the walls and different programs were on them. She took note of the one that had a map of an island, most likely the location that they were in and how it was scanning it. Each line of scan brought up little pings of light in certain locations on the island.

"The island you see on the screen is where we are, it's commonly called Wumpa Island, but it's just one of the many in this island chain." Cortex informed her.

She nodded and looked on the other screens, most of which were running some matrixes that she didn't understand. The doctor took a look back at the alien and rolled his eyes, there was no point in trying to get work done today, it was better to run her through the facility.

"Come with me, you seem to be eager about seeing this place." he half-growled. Ari followed him through the immense lab as he narrated and explained each major machine they came across. It took a good hour and a half to get through everything and then return to the computer room.

"This place is so... complex..." she commented. Cortex muttered to himself and went over to the computer that had the map of Wumpa Island on it.

"When can I see the outdoors...?" Ari asked.

"When I deem you can." Cortex replied harshly, causing her to retract from the sting of his voice. Holo, who'd quietly been observing everything with Ari stepped forward to speak.

"Doctor Cortex, I really admire your base of operations, the complexity and grandeur matches that of the old Na'vale'li ships." he remarked. Cortex huffed and kept at his work on the computer screen.

"Thank you, but if you really want to earn my respect or graditude make yourself useful as quickly as possible." the doctor replied coldly. Holo frowned at the human's lack of graditude and put his hand on Ari's shoulder.

_"Um'ku tov'nich a'sha be'lo ush'ni."_ Holo muttered to her in the Na'vale'li tongue.

Cortex spun around with a cross look on his face.

"What did you just say?!" he demanded loudly. The two jumped a little at his sudden anger.

"He said that he's going to go dormant while he figures out what he can do for your lab." Ari stood up for Holo, even though that's really not what he said. Cortex sneered, then returned to his work.

"That better have been what he said." the angered doctor growled. Holo shut down his full size form and retreated back into the discus which now hovered freely beside Ari. The disc flew off into the Evolvo-Ray room leaving the young Na'vale'li girl alone with the scientist.

**Translation for the little tidbit of Na'vale'li.**

***"I'm not going to like this man very much."**


	3. What Are You Good For?

Chapter 2: What Are You Good For?

Cortex spent a good hour or so at the computer only to turn to see that Ari hadn't moved from her spot. He let a heavy and annoyed sigh, and furrowed his eyebrows.

"What are you still doing here?" he questioned, quite cross.

"I didn't know what to do. I was hoping you'd tell me what I could do." she replied.

He crossed his arms and approached the timid young Na'vale'li. Cortex actually took a moment to examine the alien specimen before him. Pale blue skin, the incredibly long white hair carefully braided, and even the pointed ears. The eyes were slightly unnerving having no pupils and only ivory-white irises. At that point he'd stared for a bit too long, and her sudden voice brought him back to reality.

"Something wrong?" she asked in a slightly acidic tone.

Cortex wanted to lash out at her subtle attitude, but decided against it, there'd be time for that later.

"No... just thinking of what I can have you do..." he repsonded.

"Well would you hurry up...it's hard enough trying to maintain eye contact with you for this long." she urged. He gritted his teeth, trying so hard not to outright smack her in the face, but then noticing her own eyes struggling to consider which of his to peer in to. Maybe this could be used as an edge, he leaned a bit closer to cement her insecurity.

Ari slunk back in response and tried her hardest not to give way in the mental stand-off.

"You don't like my eyes...? Are they bothersome to you or something...?" he asked in a dark tone.

"Not really, just odd."

"I could say the same for you, but at least I'm not scared of yours."

"I'm not scared of you."

The Na'vale'li cringed back as soon as she saw the red glove prep for a heavy smack in her peripherals. His hand was posed to strike her, but it did not and he chuckled deeply.

"Not scared, hmm. I'm not convinced." he mocked confidently. Ari cursed under her breath and hung her head ashamed of her defeat. Cortex let his hand down to his side and walked around the young woman and went into the other room.

He stopped in the doorway and spun on his heel, waiting for Ari to follow.

"Get over here now!" he commanded. Ari was startled for a moment, but obeyed his order and followed him into the Evolvo-Ray room. Inside Holo had already gotten to work in defragging the mainframe of the room's computer systems and downloading the necessary components to decipher the encrypted coding.

"What are you doing?" Cortex called to the life-size hologram.

Holo turned to face the scientist and began to explain his doings in the room.

"I was getting the necessary information from your systems so I could do some work on them." he answered.

"Work? What makes you think I need work down on my computer systems?" Cortex continued.

"By Na'vale'li standards this barely passes, but give me a few weeks and I'll have all your base's systems up and going at Galactic Union standards." Holo guaranteed.

"Galactic Union...? There are more aliens..."

Holo nodded affirmatively and held out his hand and from his palm a light sprang out and formed into a mesh of multiple screens.

"Yes, the Galactic Union is sort of the UN for your planet, but this is on a galactic scale." he explained swiping through the screens and then tapping on one of them. Cortex examined with interest of the screen that had enlarged to show the various factions that were in the Galactic Union.

"There are three main holders of the Union proceedings. The Xantha Federation, the Tribunal Empire..." he paused and growled for a moment, "and the Duma'ken Monarchy."

"Hmm...such odd creatures, especially those Tribunal ones. Why are there three of them there?" Cortex questioned.

"It's a tribunal, three races that came together to form their...empire..._Sef'krok_. The three races being the Dorchani, those red skinned ones, the Klemvoko, the reptilian ones, and finally and most recently the Sovalt, those insect-like creatures."

The doctor could pick up on the clearly angry vibes when Holo mentioned the Tribunal Empire.

"Do you have a problem with them?" he dared to ask. Ari snapped into action and took Holo's arm down, shutting off the screens. The pain was clear, but she kept her head down.

"They killed our people..." she answered gritting her teeth.

Cortex was not fazed by her anger, and kept going on, genuinely curious of this galactic state he was missing on Earth.

"Did they now...must be a heavy feud between your two people." he instigated.

"It was a heavy feud." Holo entered calmly.

"What do you mean was?" the scientist continued. Ari flashed a dark look at the doctor and then to Holo and she left the room quickly.

Neo raised an eyebrow and looked back at the holographic Na'vale'li.

"It's a painful retelling, but if you wish to know about this I could program the data into your systems so you can take the time to venture into the Galactic Union and such." Holo offered.

"Please do, I'm curious about what lies beyond this lone planet. Just for when I ever find myself at the mercy of an alien race." he accepted. The hologram nodded and receded into the metal disk that began to glow brighter.

On the computer screen the doctor could see the millions of codes of data racing down the length of the black space.

"This might take a while, you can go and attend to your other duties if you'd like." Holo echoed from the discus. Cortex took his leave to go and find where Ari had taken off to. He found her sitting in a chair with her head down on a long stretch of machinery. He really wasn't one to care for anyone other than himself so he just watched her quietly mourn.

It was a good twenty minutes when she picked up her head and let out a long breath. She saw the scientist in her peripherals, but her now neutral expression didn't change.

"What do you want?" she asked, hiding her recent sorrow from catching in her voice.

"I still want you to find something you can do around here." he responded coldly.

"Then what would you have me do, I can't help you with your systems like Holo can."

Neo left the room without another word making Ari more pissed at him. Maybe it would have been better to have just stayed in that room.


	4. All It Takes Is A Little Persuading

Chapter 3: All It Takes Is A Little Persuading

Ari was back in her room, lying on the bed thinking over how much she was going to loathe the scientist she was stuck with. She'd come to regret ever thanking him for finding her and keeping her in this place. The will to escape was growing and if she could find a way to get away from Cortex she'd gladly take it. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the metal door opening. Holo stepped through the doorway and took a peek at the disgruntled Na'vale'li lying on the bed.

"Ari, are you all right?" he asked concerned.

"I'm fine Holo, I'm just a little mad is all." she replied. The hologram sat at the foot of the bed and watched the young woman squirm uncomfortably.

"I don't like him either, but until we can get away it's best to do as he says." Holo suggested. Ari turned on her side and clutched the pillow under her.

"Fine, but how long will it be before we ever get to the real, outside world? How long until then?" she stressed.

Holo shook his head and looked up at the darkened window peering into the room.

"I don't know, but with a bit of persuasion I think it can be achieved rather early."

"Persuasion?! How are you going to convince this control freak to let me outside for even a few seconds?" Ari interrogated.

"When I looked into his systems I found data of some of his doings. Apparently he's got this fascination for these "Power Crystals", rare gems that have immense power. There are many inventions he wants to work, but they'd need these crystals to do so." Holo informed.

Ari put together the pieces and huffed in anger.

"You honestly think he'll let me go after the things?"

"No, but we can try. You've got so much potential and he has to see that in order for him to let you do anything other than slowly die in this room." Holo urged. The Na'vale'li took into account that she would have to work for Cortex in the short-term, but her long-term goal of escape was well worth the abuse she could see coming if she failed with his tasks.

"Fine," she agreed, "but if this doesn't work I'm putting the blame on you."

"Then it's settled, I'll go tell him that you're willing to work in finding the crystals." Holo announced getting up from the bed and going back through the door. Ari was silent and she let a long annoyed sigh.

_"It's only for a little while."_ she thought.

"Are you insane?!" Cortex yelled, enraged at the hologram's suggestion.

"Doctor Cortex she has the potential to serve greatly in this field, if you'd give her the chance I'm sure she would prove most valuable to finding the power crystals." Holo pleaded.

"How am I supposed to trust her with going out into the world. She might escape and what then, if she does there's no way she'll survive for long. She knows nothing of the outside world."

Holo bit his lip and thought of something to convince him to let Ari take on these endeavors. His holographic form glitched for a split second, and then returned to normal, but instead of being in a state of thought he was posed with a sinister smile on his face.

"You could put a tracking device on her. Whenever she goes out to find the crystals you can keep track of where she is. If she goes too far out just go after her, or...perhaps add a little shock collar you humans use to train animals." the artificial Na'vale'li suggested.

Cortex perked up at the genius plan and was actually considering going through with his plea.

"How will I know that she can make it out there? She certainly has no experience in the outside world." he stipulated.

"I can take care of that, just let me go with her on a few runs, I'll make sure she learns what I know about the planet." Holo replied.

"And how can I trust you won't escape as well?"

Holo spun around and went to the main computer and started to bring up several programming codes. He typed a large matrix of numbers into the programming code and then turned to face the doctor.

"I've just put my AI sequence into your systems. I'm bound to the computer mainframe temporarily, just give the orders and I'll come back. If I don't comply I'll get shut down and Ari will have to bring me back to restart me." Holo explained.

It was almost too good to be true, but Cortex couldn't possibly refuse the offer to have an extra hand find the crystals. He had his other minions, but they were mostly incompetent when it came to finding the things, but Ari. She could be just what he was looking for, new blood, able to mold into a great seeker for the crystals, and with time she could become the perfect minion he'd so desperately wanted.

"Very well, I'll send you two on a test run tomorrow, but only if the girl complies to my rules." Cortex warned.

"I'll make sure she understands the situation." Holo promised with that same sinister grin.

Back in the room Ari was still on the bed and back to her thoughts of freedom and escape from her captor of eleven and a half years. When Holo came in she was desperate to hear what news he had for her.

"Well, did he take the offer?" she asked immediately.

"Yes, but on a few conditions. You have to abide by his rules when you go out to find the crystals."

"You actually convinced him to let me outside? I'm impressed, but what kind of rules are we talking about here?" she questioned.

"I'm not for sure yet, but I know that I'll be accompanying you for a few of the runs to find them. Just so you can get acquainted with the outside world." he continued.

"That's not bad, but I'm wondering just how much he's going to restrict me on going to find the things." she muttered.

"I can't be sure of what he'll do, but when we get the chance to escape we will." Holo assured. After running it by a few times in her head Ari was pleased with what she'd been given and thanked her companion greatly.

When Holo left the room he immediately met Cortex who was eager to start on the work for the tracking device.

"Well then, have you told her what's going to be done?" he asked.

"I have, and she's willing to comply with the terms." Holo reported.

"Excellent! Now we just need to make an effective "tracking" device to keep her in check."

"Of course, wouldn't want her running off the first day now would we." Holo chuckled as he glitched out again for a split second.


	5. I Want To Be Free

Chapter 4: I Want To Be Free

"Ari, time to get up. We have work to do today." Holo urged as he shook the sleeping girl. She opened her eyes sluggishly and tried to remember just what he meant.

"Ari, let's go we don't have time to be sleepy. Come on, Doctor Cortex is going to be furious if you don't get up soon!" he shook even harder, snapping her into action. Her first instinct was to go and put her hair up, but Holo explained that there wasn't enough time for that.

She was stuck with having to have her hair dangle down to her ankles and flowing behind her as she walked through the lab. Holo rushed her into the computer room where Cortex was awaiting their arrival. He took notice of Ari's new hairstyle and had to half-scoff half-chuckle at the sheer length.

"I'm surprised you haven't tripped yet." he commented.

"Holo just had to be here as soon as possible." she replied with acid in her tone.

Cortex made a passing hand gesture as if to swipe away her reply and then turned to pick up the metal collar on the keyboard behind him. He presented it to her with a cold glare and a domineering stance. She eyed the device with contempt and dared an angry glance at the sadistic scientist.

"What's this?" she asked.

"It's a tracking collar, you didn't think I'd let you go out that easily did you." he answered.

She turned to face Holo who only had a neutral stare, but she could tell that he had something to do with this.

"Only if I have to wear the damn thing to go outside." she growled taking the collar from Cortex's grasp. She pulled it apart and put it around her neck, careful not to catch any of her hair. Once around her neck the collar lit up with a red light that stretched the length of it.

"Good, it's working exactly as it should." Neo commented.

"Now what?" Ari questioned tugging slightly at the metal collar.

"Now, we need to get you dressed properly for your little test mission." he responded. He ushered her to follow him into another room where she saw the outfit she would being wearing. It was a white overcoat, almost like his but this one had a zipper running down the length of it to the right and it was a bit longer. There was a pair of black pants with a gold stripe down the sides and stylized rusty-red combat boots.

Along with it was a leather belt with various pouches, a gun holster, and a knife holster as well. Where the belt clipped together was a stylized "N", which she could have really cared less for, but she was working for him at this point. There was also a pair of red gloves, the same color as the boots but they had straps to make sure that they wouldn't slide off of her hands. Cortex picked up the uniform and handed it to Ari who took it rather un-enthused.

"Go get changed and come back so I can give you your mission." he ordered.

Ari changed into the outfit which fit surprisingly well, no doubt Holo helped out in finding the correct size for her. She had to admit the uniform was comfortable despite what she had thought before about it. Now that she had the time she braided her hair and quickly returned to Cortex in order to get outside as quickly as possible. Holo was standing next to him holding something in his hands that looked like a weapon of some sort. Ari waited for a response from the two, but was acknowledged with an awkward silence, and Holo's gaping mouth didn't help.

She cleared her throat to get them back to the real task at hand and not the one that had the two ogling her new look.

"Holo, if you would." Cortex prompted. The holographic Na'vale'li approached her and handed her a ray gun that looked well-worn.

"It's one of my older model ray guns, I expect you to take care of it." Neo explained. Ari couldn't say no to a free weapon, and took it gratefully, putting it into the gun holster on her right side.

"Everything looks good, I'm pretty sure you can handle that ray gun. From what Holo's told me at least...hmmm," he paused then snapped up remembering something, "you'll need to wear this as well."

Cortex pulled out from his overcoat pocket a wrist communicator and handed it to Ari.

"I'll check in every now and then and I expect an immediate report." he ordered. She put the communicator on her left wrist for efficiency reasons and stood awaiting her mission.

Holo retreated into the disk and took to hovering around Ari also waiting for the mission briefing. Cortex cleared his throat and began to explain their task.

"On the communicator you'll see a map of the island, on that map I've marked the location of a rather easy to obtain objective. I need you to retrieve a clear gem for me from the ruins around that area, it's not a power crystal, but it's power is evident nonetheless." he informed. Ari nodded in acknowledgement looking at the communicator and seeing where he meant.

"Under no circumstances are you to communicate with anyone you may encounter on the island." he warned.

"Who would be living on this island? It's pretty isolated from what I know." she replied. Cortex frowned and then spoke a curse under his breath.

"There are others who make this island their home, make no mistake about that and I'd rather you not come in contact with them."

"Fine, then. Any other rules you need to lay down before I go?" she asked with a slightly sarcastic tone.

"Yes, do this job right and you'll be rewarded. Fail, and the consequences will be dire." he cautioned.

Ari was dropped off about two miles from where the location of the gem was from Cortex's dirigible. When she got to the island's jungle floor she immediately got a call from Neo on the communicator.

"Yes?" she answered.

"I forgot to mention the natives of the island don't take too kindly to foreigners. Be warned, they do take prisoners, but they never live to see the light of day again." he warned, signing off on that morbid note.

She rolled her eyes as she saw the dirigible fly back to the lab.

"Just what I needed to hear at the last minute." she scoffed looking for which direction to take off in. North seemed to be where the gem was located so she followed a slightly cleared route that led in that direction. Holo hovered around her, alert for any hostile wildlife, or tribal people that may have come out and attack them. The jungle was thick, no doubt and the insects were nearly unbearable, but that didn't stop Ari from continuing at a relatively fast pace.

This part of the path ended at the edge of a wide and shallow creek full of sleek, algae covered stones.

"Well, time to get our feet wet, eh Holo." she commented plunging her feet into the cold water. The combat boots were a god-send, apparently water-proof by some means of material and they barely lost any heat from the chilling water. Once on the other side the path continued, but in a north-easterly direction now. This part of the path was more slithering and uncut, those who used this way must not have come this far very often.

The jungle leaves were getting in the way at points, but she managed even without the help of a machete. Continuing down the path was soon no longer an option as it got harder and harder to tell were it was actually going and where important turns were in the terrain as to avoid dangerous spots, a few of which she found, but Holo had thankfully found them first and cautioned her. It was a good three hours into the jungle and she found a strange clearing, looking on the communicator she was definitely close to the gem. At this point she got another call from Cortex on the communicator.

"From what I can see on the tracking device, you're close to the gem, correct?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm in a clearing now and I think I can see some stones up ahead." she reported.

"Good, get the gem and I'll send you a hoverboard so you can get back to the zeppelin." he informed. He signed off allowing her to continue to the main bulk of the ruins. Most of the stones were carved with morbid, twisted faces no doubt tribal in origin.

"So what's the story behind these things Holo?" Ari asked.

"Back when most humans were nothing more than tribes they often carved stories or pictures into stones for various reasons. I don't know exactly the purpose for these stones, but it seems to be either a warning or a scary story." Holo answered. Upon approaching one of the stones she ran her fingers down the indents of the picture of a distorted, decorative. After admiring the ancient stonework she continuing wandering the ruins until something bright caught her eye. In the left eye of a large, decrepit statue of a crocodile was the clear gem that Cortex had mentioned.

She had to scale the statue's pedestal, but she managed to grab out the eye without incident. To a normal person the gem looked like any other valuable mineral, but Ari could feel the power emanating from the palm sized gem. It was a weak pulse, but it coursed through her nonetheless letting her peer into some repressed ability that she never realized she had.

"Holo...is this thing supposed to feel like this?" she asked, a little afraid of why she could feel the pulse of power.

"Supposed to feel like what?" he replied.

She couldn't quite express what it felt like, but it was a pulse one that was trying to pull something locked away in her.

"It's so odd...it's like the gem is trying to unlock something inside of me. Like there's something I haven't found yet, an old memory or something." she managed. Holo became full sized and observed the gem and then looked at Ari closely. He could see that the gem was prompting her stress reaction, causing the trademark ridges of the Na'vale'li to appear on her cheeks and on her forehead.

"Your stress reaction is showing... this gem is doing something to you. We need to take it back to base immediately. I want to know what's in it that's causing your reaction to flare up." Holo urged. Ari had heard what he said, but she was perplexed for the moment, the pulse was almost hypnotic now, beckoning her to keep the precious stone in her hand. He noticed her unresponsive behavior and snatched the stone away causing her to instantly come back to reality.

Now that she was aware of her surroundings again she brought up the communicator and called for Cortex to send the hoverboard. Not even ten minutes passed at the humming of the hoverboard was clear and it came down at her feet. Holo receded back into the disk and Ari took hold of it stepping on the hoverboard. It was difficult getting her balance at first, but she managed and it took off to the dirigible.

The force of the wind passing by, making her braid flutter back made her feel like nothing in the world could go wrong now. For the moment she felt free, but that was just it, it was only for the moment. The realization brought her at odds with herself; the side of reason telling her not to go through with the crazy plan formulating in her mind, and the side of longing wishing to be free, to explore the world she'd been kept from. Ari shut her eyes and took a deep breath, maybe she could get away right now, she could take the hoverboard turn it around and just fly away. She crouched on the hoverboard with her hand clenched on the side and she opened her eyes.

With all her strength she pulled the device and made it turn away from it's intended route. She took full control with that one motion and headed away as fast as the board would go.

"Ari, what are you doing?!" Holo yelled from the disk.

"I'm getting away Holo! Away from him, away from imprisonment! I don't want to stay there I want to be free, I want to go back home!" she cried.

"Ari, no! Go back don't do this!" Holo protested, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. The rushing wind made her eyes water, but she didn't care, she was getting away, becoming free until she felt the shock of hundreds of volts of electricity violently tear through her body. The shock was so great that she fell from the board, plummeting nearly two hundred feet from the ground. She was unable to move, her mind was muddled by the electric shock still coursing through her. Her eyes were still open and she was registering every detail of her fall, the violent shriek of air, the ever nearing jungle canopy.

"ARI!" Holo's voice called from above as his disk fell beside her. It was the last thing she heard, before she blacked out.


	6. Du'hano

Chapter 5: _Du'hano_

Ari opened her eyes, they were heavy like steel doors trying to be pushed open. When she managed to see into the world around her she was assaulted by lights and she cringed shutting her eyes again.

"Ari..." the muffled voice of Holo called from nearby.

"Holo...?" she managed with her dry, weak voice.

"Yes, Ari it's me..."

His voice helped lull her out of her stupor and open her eyes once more, which adjusted to the lights of a room she hadn't been in before.

"Where...where am I?" she asked clutching her aching head.

"Back at base, we managed to save you before you hit the canopy." Holo explained. Ari was stiff all over barely able to move her fingers and her head was worst of all. It was like she'd just been hit on the head with a sledgehammer and then forced to listen to high pitched squealing right after.

With Holo's help she was able to sit up, but when she did she saw the eyes of hatred staring at her from across the room. The green eye, full of hatred and disgust and the blue eye, judgmental and filled with spite. The dark lining of Cortex's eyes only magnified the stare and it put Ari in a state of fear.

"I knew you'd try it. I should have known better than to let you out, and now you see the consequences of your actions. You're lucky I'm giving you a second chance, let alone I saved your pathetic life." Neo growled.

Ari shrunk back against the headboard of a bed that she wasn't familiar with and let the flood of depressing emotions take her. Cortex pushed off of the wall he was leaned up against and stood in a military-like stance.

"I expect you to fix this Holo, or else next time she does this...it'll be her last day on this planet." he warned in a dark voice before leaving through a normal wooden door. Ari looked up at Holo only to find that his expression was just about as bad as Neo's had been.

"It's time Ari..." he said before backing away from the bed and becoming a full color, non-transparent version of himself. His skin was darker than Ari's and had a purple tint around his eyes, which were ivory-white like her's. His hair was a deep black color with hints of blue tracing through it all the way to the pony-tail. Holo also had a traditional form of Na'vale'li facial growths (like human facial hair), two growths that went down either side of his lips and one that reflected the effectiveness of a human goatee. He wore a traditional Na'vale'li military lieutenant's uniform; gold shoulder pads, and navy blue cloak that encompassed much of his body.

"You need to know the true purpose of my being with you." he stated.

"I thought you were just with me to help me survive." she commented.

"That's only part of the reason I'm with you today. Your father wanted to preserve our race through the best means possible so after the our war with the Tribunal Empire he urged all of the Na'vale'li to live peaceful lives."

"And we did, but the Tribunal still thought of us as enemies even though we'd changed our ways."

Holo chuckled and this left Ari confused, that's how he'd always told her that it had been.

"We did and that was all thanks to your father, but I knew that it was a futile effort to change our reputation. I knew all along that the Tribunal would still hunt us down and destroy our race even before we set off on that pointless voyage across the universe. That's why I convinced your father to let me go with you, not to preserve the ways of peace that we'd become "enlightened" to, but to preserve the ways of war that we were born with. Lonark realized when the ship was going down that there would be no point in carrying on those ways, so he let me go with you so I could teach you one day about our true purpose here on Earth."

Ari was outraged, all that she'd learned about their people and their turn to peace, it was now being thrown away by the one who'd taught it to her.

"But you're the one who said that it was the turn to peace was the best thing that happened to our people. Why are you going and completely denying this now?!" she questioned.

"Because you aren't a normal Na'vale'li, Ari. You were born under the Blood Eclipse of the moon of Ta'vak, on the same day as our greatest war leader Siv'nach Tor'ma Ech'nato nearly two millenia ago! The elders of our race blessed you with limitless power and your very name was etched into our Origin Prophecy!" he exclaimed with immense volume.

"What does it matter if I was born on the day of a celestial event, or on the same day as a war leader?" she defiantly asked.

"It matters because _you_ and you alone are the key to the ultimate weapon stated in the Prophecy! The weapon that will bring all our enemies to their knees and slaughter them to extinction as they tried to do to us!" Holo proclaimed. Ari refused to believe his words, to believe the words of the prophecy that lead their people to destruction.

"No! I'm not...I want to continue our people's strive for peace and understanding, not start a whole prophetic genocide!" she screamed.

Holo had to convince her of her fate, the fate he knew all to well to be true.

"The gem you held in your hands today, it was one of the keys to your true potential. You're true power, a power that no other Na'vale'li has ever achieved and it must be used against those who sought to destroy our kind!" he preached.

_"Ti'ku, um'ku ed'ra'nich ag'sha hu'ma'chi sech'no u'to Du'hano!"_ she denounced, her anger causing her to tear up. Holo relented his verbal assault, and let her voice her denial, but he knew that the prophecy was true it had never been wrong before.

When Ari finally calmed down Holo began to speak.

_"At'um ed'ra sush'ni ut'ra um'ku tov'ishi'vo sa'mo ek'um sush'ha u'to te'sko ha'ni lo'uto tor'ma." _

Holo left the room in his colorless, transparent form and went to find the doctor to see if he could patch up this incident with her trying to escape. He found him prepping his ray gun for some unknown encounter in the main computer room.

"Doctor Cortex, I've done my part, she shouldn't trouble you anymore." he assured.

"Really, I'm not convinced that something like that can be so easily fixed, I was thinking that you'd come back to tell me to deliver a punishment to her." Cortex admitted.

"If you want my honest opinion, a real punishment to her is to let her continue this work in finding these gems you require. With her knowing that she can't get away thanks to the tracking collar she'll be forced to be close to freedom, but yet be so far away from it." Holo grinned sadistically.

He went through another glitch again when he smiled and returned to a neutral expression. Cortex thought about it for a while and realized that it _was_ a great punishment.

"Very well then Holo. I'll let her continue to find the gems and crystals for me, but you must prove to me that she'll no longer be problematic with the whole "getting away" thing." he agreed.

"Trust me, when she finds a real power crystal she'll change her habits." Holo replied laughing darkly afterwards.

Ari was moved to her own room a while after to sleep off her fatigue and injury, but that was the last thing on her to-do-list. Holo wasn't with her in the room once again, and she truly doubted that even the one who'd taught her everything she knew and kept her sane all these years was not her real companion. Was everyone she knew, or got to know against her? To her, it felt like the entire planet was against her for being so "special". She didn't want to fulfill the murderous needs of a long dead prophecy let alone kill anyone for that matter.

She cried herself to sleep that night and dreamed of the same day she always dreamt of. The day she became the last of her race and the only one they had to carry on their legacy.

**More Na'vale'li (In order of appearance)**

**"No, I won't go through with the Prophecy."**

**"You will see that I'm right when we find the true key to the power." **

**[From the author]**

**Everything seems to be against Ari doesn't it. Poor girl it'll only get worse from here. TT**


End file.
